Ruthie Ann Miles

Ruthie Ann Miles is an American actress and singer born on April 21, 1983, in Arizona. She was raised by her Korean mother, Esther Wong, a music teacher, first in Korea and then, beginning in second grade, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Miles attended Kaimuki High School, graduating in 2001, and subsequently studied at Southern Oregon University before completing a bachelor's degree at Palm Beach Atlantic University in 2005. She later earned a Master of Music in Vocal Performance with an emphasis on music theatre from New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.

Miles built her early career through off-Broadway and regional work. With the York Theatre, she appeared as Leah in Two by Two and as Red Urchin in The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd. Beginning in 2011, she spent two years performing as Christmas Eve and other characters in Avenue Q off-Broadway. She also appeared in national tours of Sweeney Todd, in which she played Adolfo Pirelli, and Annie, and took on a role as a doctor in the film I Am Michael. Her portrayal of Imelda Marcos in Here Lies Love, presented off-Broadway at The Public Theatre in 2013, earned her both a Theatre World Award and a Lucille Lortel Award.

Her Broadway breakthrough came with the 2015 Lincoln Center revival of The King and I, in which she played Lady Thiang. The performance drew widespread critical acclaim, with Ben Brantley of The New York Times describing her rendition of "Something Wonderful" as an exquisite expression of romantic realism. For the role, Miles received the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical as well as the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical. She later reprised the role in the West End production of The King and I in August 2018.

Miles returned to Broadway in 2017 as Frieda/Betty in the revival of Sunday in the Park with George. In February 2018, she appeared at the Kennedy Center in a concert production of Chess, playing Svetlana. During a break from her next Broadway engagement in June of a later year, she played Margaret Johnson in an Encores! production of The Light in the Piazza in New York City, a staging that reexamined the musical from an Asian American perspective. She also sang the national anthem at A Capitol Fourth that same week.

In February 2023, Miles returned to Broadway in the revival of Sweeney Todd, this time as the Beggar Woman, a role that earned her a second Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. The following year, she originated the role of Sahra in the Broadway play McNeal. Miles is also scheduled to originate the role of Dorothy in the musical Millions at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2025.

Alongside her stage work, Miles has maintained a television career. In 2016, she appeared in a recurring role on The Americans as Young-Hee Seong, a Korean immigrant and Mary Kay consultant whose husband draws the attention of the KGB. From 2019 to 2023, she played Sherri Kansky in the television series All Rise.

In her personal life, Miles is married to Jonathan Blumenstein. On March 5, 2018, while crossing a street in Brooklyn, New York, Miles, her husband, and other pedestrians were struck by a car that ran a red light. Their five-year-old daughter, Abigail Blumenstein, was killed in the crash, and Miles, who was seven months pregnant at the time, sustained injuries. On May 11, 2018, she and Blumenstein lost their unborn daughter as well. Miles returned to the stage in August 2018. In April 2020, she gave birth to a daughter named Hope Elizabeth.